Vegan Master Sweet Dough

5 from 5 votes

Course: Side Dish, Bread

Cuisine: Global Cuisine

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 12

Total Time: 27

Servings: 3 cups

Calories: 774kcal

Author: Kelly

Cost: $1.36 for full recipe

The only vegan sweet dough you’ll need for all your enriched baking needs. Knead by hand or in a stand mixer. Plus: how to make a fast one-rise sandwich loaf.

Print Recipe

US Imperial (Cups) - Metric (Grams)

Equipment

Stand mixer with dough hook attachment
Bench scraper (*optional)

Ingredients

1 tsp dry yeast (*you can double this if you're in a hurry)
1 cup Homemade Soy Milk (*can sub with any milk of your choice)
¼ cup water (*only if following the optional Tangzhong step; see Note 1)
¼ cup sugar
6 tbsp butter (*can sub with 75g oil)
3 cups bread flour or all purpose flour (see Note 2)
1 tsp salt

Instructions

Tangzhong *optional

Take 1/4 cup of the flour (30g) and put it in a small saucepan along with 1/4 cup water (60g). Set on medium-low heat and whisk until a smooth paste forms with no lumps (or very few).
Pour in 1/4 cup of the soy milk (60g) and continue whisking until a thick slurry forms (like a roux).
Remove from heat and let cool until comfortable to touch before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

Sweet Dough

If using active dry yeast, dissolve the yeast and sugar in soy milk and let stand for 10 minutes before proceeding with recipe. (If using instant yeast, you can skip this step.)
Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl. (Remember, if you chose to make the tangzhong, you will be adding only 3/4 cup soy milk (180g) and 2¾ cups flour (360g) here. Also make sure to add the tangzhong you just made too.)
Using the stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, mix the ingredients together. Once the ingredients have been roughly incorporated into a shaggy mess, let the mixer knead it for 12 minutes. (See Knead By Hand section for instructions if you don’t have a stand mixer.)
The dough should be smooth and slightly tacky. You are now ready to use this vegan master sweet dough in any enriched bread recipe. (If not using immediately, please see the Make Ahead & Storage Tips section for how to store your dough.) Below is an example of a simple sandwich loaf you can make with this dough.

One-Rise Sandwich Loaf

Divide the dough into three or four pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth ball.
Place the balls in a loaf pan (see Note 3). Cover and let rise until nearly doubled in size (should be around 1 inch away from the top of the loaf pan. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 °F.
Bake uncovered for 40 minutes on the middle rack. If you have a food thermometer, the inside of the bread should reach 190 °F.
Let the bread sit for 10 minutes inside the pan, then turn it out onto a cooling rack. Cool fully before slicing.

Notes

Tangzhong is an Asian method of pre-gelatinizing part of the flour in a bread recipe to make the resulting bread more fluffy, tender, and keep it fresh for longer. You can read more about it in my Coconut Pandan Bread Recipe. Using tangzhong in this recipe is optional, but I especially recommend it if you are making the dough for an Asian bread recipe. Bread recipes using tangzhong should have a higher hydration (at least 75%) for the tangzhong to be most effective. Without the tangzhong, this recipe has 61.5% hydration. Therefore, we add an additional 1/4 cup of water when making the tangzhong to bring the hydration up to nearly 77%. Because of the extra liquid, the dough made with the tangzhong will be stickier. It may not lift cleanly from the bottom of the mixer bowl even after kneading for a full 12 minutes. It may stick to your hands more. This is okay and normal. Resist the temptation to add more flour.
If you live in a dry climate, or are using bread flour, you can reduce the total flour to 2¾ cups (360g).
For the sandwich bread, I tested in my stainless steel loaf pan. Loaves baked in ceramic loaf pans may take a few minutes longer because of the thicker insulating walls. Any standard 8x4 or 9x5 loaf pan size works for this recipe.
I recently updated this recipe to increase the butter from 4 tbsp to 6 tbsp. Much richer taste and easier to shape as well. Worth the extra calories!

Nutrition